ROTIMI AMAECHI : A Spider Not Trapped In His Web By: Oby Ndukwe

At 50 years, this man has no doubt achieved more than he ever imagined, considering his very humble beginning. His successes are mixed with his pains as he seems to have been one of the few politicians of the 21st century to taste the bitter pills of unfriendly friends whom he was once closely knit. In his travails which characterize his meteoric rise in the Nigerian political cosmology, Rotimi Amaechi has transcended the deliberate landmines laid on his journey to stardom.

The Ubima born leader of a group fanatic APC followers has indeed become an issue that his detractors are plagued with insomnia due to minute by minute brainstorming on the project of “operation pull him down at all cost”.

Though from a relatively minority ethnic group of Nigeria, Rotimi Amaechi has shot himself to reckoning that he now belongs to the league of political leaders who sit to discuss the fate of the nation. Rightly or wrongly, he has conquered the traditional belief that only the majority can have their way. From his days as a students’ union leader to an eight year reign as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly and two time Chairman of Conference of Speakers, then, to a two time Governor of Rivers State as well as two time Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum and lately the Director General of the APC presidential campaign organization which led the civilian revolution in the Nigerian political power play.

In the course of the discharge of these duties, he unknowingly built a large political structure which cut across all the six geo political zones. His audacity of courage to deal with the claws of the federal government which had alienated him from his party and made him a stranger in his home was the dagger drawn into the heart of the PDP and those who ostracized him. While most of his critics are quick to forget the Genesis of the crisis that pitched him against his brother – President, they are rather quick to dismiss him as a traitor. For his enemies, it’s a pay back time for the man who has been crowned a General of the Common sense Revolution by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and a host of other APC faithfuls.

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The plot to ensure that Amaechi is hexed in his web is the only past time of the Rivers PDP under Gov. Nyesom Wike. Tucked in their coat and listed in their books as the achievements of Wike within 100days, is the crown of having succeeded in stopping Amaechi ‘s appointment as the Secretary to the Federal Government, SGF. Nothing could have been better celebrated, as Wike slyly found his way into Aso Rock under the guise of going to discuss with the President on his plans to seek external loans. It afforded him the opportunity to state his case against Amaechi. “I know I am corrupt, but this Amaechi is not good enough for your cabinet…..” No, he prefers to give death to the man who gave him life!

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At last, the opposition celebrates the infamous trip to Aso Rock with the appointment of someone else as SGF. The prayer of Amaechi’s enemies were answered, though, in ignorance of Buhari’s commitment to make the office of SGF less attractive but more administrative. The presumed error of the President in turn is a blessing in disguise. While his supporters and admirers feel an insidious pain of betrayal, Amaechi has carried on like the spider which produces a trap for its enemies, but escapes through the trap, unhurt. The secret is that the spider produces a kind of oil which aids it’s movement across its web. It never gets caught up where the enemy is trapped. Like the Spider, Amaechi has an oil of anointing which helps him navigate through storms his own personality has produced.

Oby Ndukwe is the Publisher of THE BEAM MAGAZINE